Yongho-dong is a ''
dong'' on the coast of
Busan
Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...
, a major port city in southeastern
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
. Its mainland portion is bordered on three sides by water, standing on a peninsula which separates
Busan Harbor from
Suyeong Bay. Its boundaries include the famed islets of
Oryukdo
Oryukdo () is group of islands in Busan Bay, in Yongho-dong, Nam District, Busan, South Korea. The name of the islands reflects the fact that they can consist of either five or six islands, depending on the current tides.
The island closest to ...
, and several other small uninhabited islands.
Yongho-dong is a legal ''dong''; for administrative purposes, it is divided into four administrative ''dong'': Yongho 1,2,3, and 4-dong. Yongho 1-dong alone, with more than 43,000 people, is the most heavily populated administrative dong in Nam-gu.
Yongho-dong is densely populated; its 7 square kilometers of land are home to more than 72,000 people. Thanks to its proximity to the harbor, it is also the site of a campus of the
Korea Institute of Maritime and Fisheries Technology
The Korea Institute of Maritime and Fisheries Technology, or KIMFT, is a maritime education and research institute operated by the government of South Korea. It is based in Yeongdang-dong, Nam-gu, Busan, with an auxiliary campus on Yeongdo i ...
.
There are varying accounts of the origin of the name "Yongho," which dates to the
Japanese occupation. The second syllable ''ho'' means lake, and refers to a
salt pan which once lay on
Suyeong Bay at the dong's north end. The first syllable ''yong'', which means "dragon," may have referred to a legend that the pan was inhabited by an ''
imugi'', a snake which failed to become a dragon. However, this syllable may also have simply been borrowed from the name of neighboring
Yongdang-dong, to signify "the lake next to Yongdang-dong."
The highest point in Yongho-dong is the low peak of
Jangsanbong, overlooking the harbor.
See also
*
Geography of South Korea
South Korea is located in East Asia, on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula located out from the far east of the Asian landmass. The only country that shares a land border with South Korea is North Korea, lying to the north with of ...
External links
Yongho 1-dong website, in Korean
{{coord missing, South Korea
Nam District, Busan
Neighborhoods of Busan